Pages

16 Sep 2014

Key left holding the SPEARGUN

What was by far the most important revelation to come out of the Moment of Truth was Edward Snowden's information about SPEARGUN, which was a project completed in mid 2013 to tap the Southern Cross cable. There is no doubt this new evidence has laid waste to John Key's claims that there is no mass surveillance in New Zealand.

Clearly the GCSB has and still is spying on all of our communications. In that regard, Snowden’s information was more like a nuclear bomb blast of new information highlighting New Zealand's involvement in the Five Eyes network.

To your right is the relevant info-graphic showing SPEARGUN wasn’t just a proposal the PM dismissed, it was a functioning tool used by the spying agencies to keep tabs on all of our Internet activities.

Anybody who now doubts that Key was lying about mass surveillance is either an uninformed idiot or has a vested interest in people losing their right to privacy.

Key’s subsequent failure to properly address the serious issues that were raised during the Moment of Truth was compounded by his earlier attempt at a pathetic diversion.

The Prime Minister, just hours before the capacity event took place at the Auckland town hall, released documents about a GCSB project called CORTEX, which appears to be another system entirely to SPEARGUN. The CORTEX project was apparently meant to protect New Zealand from malware attacks, and in my opinion has been proven to be an ineffective use of taxpayer's money if the recent Spark malware attack is anything to go by.

Key claimed the previously classified information proved there was no mass surveillance on New Zealanders, when all it did was show the Prime Minister was willing to declassify secret documents that provide sensitive information about New Zealand’s anti-hacker capabilities. It also showed Key was willing to ignore proper process and release sensitive material in order to support his weakened political position.

But what is perhaps the worst example of deceit to come to light during the Moment of Truth was the fact that while John Key was claiming in public the GCSB law change wouldn't mean mass surveillance, those who were implementing SPEARGUN were awaiting that very same law change so they could start collecting people's data.

Not only did the SPEARGUN project get funding and built while such activity was illegal under New Zealand law, John Key specifically changed the law so that mass surveillance became legal and blatantly lied about what the law change was for.

Clearly the untruthful Prime Minister should do the right thing for once and resign! I simply cannot see how he could bullshit his way out of this one.

At the very least he should release all the documentation concerning SPEARGUN. He won't because John Key is a pathetic con-artist...a politician who clearly doesn't deserve to be in power.